Man prepares to eat his own shoe after casting doubt on ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Taking a page from director Werner Herzog, a man has made a showbusiness bet involving Top Gun: Maverick that has resulted in him agreeing to eat a shoe.

It all started a decade ago when a man who goes by Matt Patches on Twitter, who is the deputy editor for Vox’s entertainment coverage according to his bio, tweeted that if a Top Gun sequel happened, he would eat a shoe.

“No one has let me forget this … including the folks at Paramount, who are quite excited for me to be wrong,” Patches said while sharing a photo of a cake with a shoe design on it that he seemed to be implying was sent to him from the movie studio bringing the Tom Cruise action flick to the big screen Friday.

“Saving this for after the actual shoe (although I may already be in a coma). Check back Thursday,” Patches said while appropriately sporting aviator sunglasses.

Famously, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans director and notable eccentric Herzog placed a bet that he would eat his shoe if his friend, Errol Morris, ever completed a movie he was working on, believing he would never actually finish it. But in 1979, Herzog literally ate his words after Morris completed the movie Gates of Heaven. A documentary short, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, was released in 1980 by director Les Blank, which depicts the incident. Herzog boiled the shoes for five hours with garlic, herbs, and stock and then consumed one of them before an audience at the premiere of Gates of Heaven — all except the sole, which Herzog compared to the bones of a chicken, according to Cabinet Magazine. The entire incident is available on YouTube.

Since Patches makes an allusion to “check back Thursday,” he may be poised to consume the footwear to coincide with the Top Gun: Maverick premiere in theaters, perhaps even at an actual screening, Herzog-style. If he does just that, we’re certain Paramount won’t hesitate to promote the unusual meal on social media when it happens.